KARAJ, Iran — Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a defiant TV speech Sunday in which he taunted the West, saying the Islamic Republic is unfazed by the threat of Western military action.

“As God is my witness, the Iranian nation will not give a damn for [your] bombs, warships and planes,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in Karaj, west of Tehran, reported by the official IRNA news agency.

“They say all [options] are on the table. Well, let them rot there. You yourself will rot,” he added.

The hard-line leader accused the US and other Western nations of bullying Iran, adding that the West “should talk politely, and recognize the rights of nations, and cooperate instead of showing teeth, and weapons and bombs.”

Ahmadinejad’s comments come at a tense time in Iran’s relations with the West.

A statement released by the group Thursday urged Iran to enter into a “serious dialogue” about the program “without pre-conditions.”

The US believes there is still a “window of opportunity” for the dispute over Iran’s nuclear ambitions — which Tehran insists are peaceful — to be resolved diplomatically.

President Barack Obama said this week that the US would continue to apply pressure with sanctions, “even as we provide a door for the Iranian regime to walk through” to prove its nuclear drive is peaceful.